Titan

                It was a beautiful day to be outside.  Calm, cool, and clear are the words I would use to describe it.  It was the day of our class field trip to Six Flags.  We drove throughout the night so we could get there early Friday morning and make the most out of the day.   We were all excited for the fun the day promised.

                I had almost always been scared of high thrill rides.  I overheard many other students express similar feelings on the trip there, so I was not overly worried about it.   I figured that I could hang out with the other non-thrill seeking students and still have plenty of fun. When we arrived at Six-Flags, we were informed that we must all make groups of four and stick with our group.  This meant that I had to do everything my group did, including riding rides.

                Before I could even start looking for a group, I was invited to join one my friends had already made.  I knew from the bus ride that each of the other boys in my group enjoyed only the most thrilling rides; the exact ones that I hated. But being a seventh grade boy overly concerned with looking like a pansy in front of my friends, I reluctantly joined. 

                When we entered the gates of the park, my group immediately began searching for our first ride.  They had the idea that they wanted to start the day of big and decided that we should first ride the scariest ride in the park, a rollercoaster by the name of “Titan.”  If you have ever been to Six Flags over Texas, then it’s pretty much guaranteed you have seen Titan.  It’s the one that climbs 255 feet into the sky before plummeting its riders seventy degrees all the way to the ground, repeating the process, and then sends them through a series of high-speed spirals and twist. For someone that had never ridden something much more exhilarating than a carousel, it meant sure death.

                I tried to pretend like I was excited about the idea, never leading on to my fear. I wanted to fit in with the tough guys. Besides, I had agreed to join the group and I didn’t want to be the one to hold everyone back.

                Despite being one of the first groups of people in the park, a line had already formed at the Titan by the time we made our way over there.  There were signs throughout the line that told you how long of a wait you had from that point, and we stopped by the fifteen minute sign.  The countdown had begun.

                For fifteen minutes, I waited in the highest level of anticipation and nervousness.  My hands shook and I developed a considerable urge to go to the bathroom. I was deathly scared. It is amazing what stupid things one’s ego forces upon us.  It was the longest fifteen minutes of my life.  I desperately wanted it to be over, and I never wanted it come.

                Finally, the time came for us to board the coaster.  My group took our seats in the very back cart. My stomach dropped into my seat when they pulled the bar over my head and locked me in.  It was too late now to turn back.  I was strapped in, both mentally and mechanically.

                The train left the station at a slow pace, and began lugging up the mountain of steel. It made the classic roller-coaster clacking sound as it climbed.  Some of the other passengers screamed in excitement, while others closed their eyes and gripped anything they could find.  I looked up the hill with a bug-eyed stare.  It was taller than it appeared from a distance. It almost went on forever.

 In about forty-five seconds the clacking stopped and we had reached the top. I probably could have seen the ocean from up there, but all I could stare at was the ground directly below me. The brief silence soon turned into a roar that sounded like a fighter jet. The front of the train raced down the hill and catapulted the back of the train over the peak of the hill.  As I looked down, I noticed that we were going steep enough down that the tracks in front of us disappeared. The train accelerated faster and faster before eventually reaching a tunnel at the bottom of the drop. I knew that the worst part was over, and that it was all downhill from there (well, there were a few rises and spirals).

The ride came to an end and the train crept back into the station.  As we got out of our seats, I eagerly yelled to my friends, “Let’s go again!”

 And just like that, my fear of rides vanished.